Walkure-Comp Opera

In the early 1930s Bruno Walter planned to record the complete Die Walkre in Berlin, exploiting recent refinements in the electrical recording technique. However when the Nazis came to power, Jewish artists, including Walter, were immediately under threat. The location of the recording was shifted to Vienna. In 1935 the whole of Act 1 and parts of Act 2 were taken down. Melchior, the finest Heldentenor of that or any time, and Lehmann managed to sound astonishingly youthful, while Hotter was to become the leading Wotan of the next two decades. Logistical and budgetary problems made it difficult to complete Act 2 and only in 1938 was the rest of it undertaken in Berlin, under the vastly experienced leadership of Bruno Seidler-Winkler.